Alan MacLeod

Alan MacLeod

Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. He is author of "Bad News From Venezuela: 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting." His latest book, Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, was published by Routledge in May 2019. Follow him on Twitter: @AlanRMacLeod

Articles by this author

MSNBC Graphic (1/3/20) celebrating female heads of weapon-making corporations and military agencies. Views
Monday, June 29, 2020
Bombing People Is Not Feminist, No Matter How You Spin It
Have you heard the good news, ladies? You too can bomb the Middle East! Some corporate media have recently been taken with the “inspirational” story of Emily Thompson, the first woman to pilot the super-costly F-35 jet in combat. At an unspecified time earlier this month, Thompson took off from her...
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Sunday, June 07, 2020
Media Downplay Global South Leadership on Covid-19
Amid the Trump administration’s calamitous response to the Covid-19 pandemic, media have been looking to other countries for inspiration in responsible leadership during a period of crisis. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has been one popular pick, having capably managed to limit the...
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Unfortunately, for journalists stuck in a corporate media system that promotes deference to authority and finds equivalency even when there is none, the president’s dangerous ramblings need to be treated as legitimate and worthy of discussion, even in apparently adversarial media. (Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images) Views
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Both Sides-ing Bleach Injection: Media in the Era of an Incompetent President
You probably saw Donald Trump’s ridiculous, false and deadly claim last week: that ingesting chemical cleaners could cure humans of the coronavirus. At a White House press briefing on Thursday ( 4/23/20 ), the president said: I see disinfectant, where it knocks it [coronavirus] out in a minute—one...
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HONG KONG, CHINA - 2020/01/01: Riot police officers in formation rushing to arrest protesters during the new year day demonstration. The unrest in Hong Kong shows no sign of a abating in 2020, with the new year marked by rallies showing continued resistance against Beijing's tightening grip over the financial hub. (Photo: Geovien So/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Views
Friday, February 21, 2020
Cop-Hating Vandals or Pro-Democracy Activists?
The New York Police Department (NYPD) can generally rely on corporate media as allies on controversial police issues. A case in point was the New York subway protests earlier this month, in which the activist group Decolonize This Place organized hundreds of people to occupy New York City subway...
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Someone like Sanders, who promises to take on the power and influence of the rich, is an unwelcome intrusion into politics as usual. (Photo: Bloomberg column 2/10/20) Views
Friday, February 14, 2020
For Media in New Hampshire, Losing Is Winning and Winning Is Losing
The results from the New Hampshire primary are in— mercifully quickly —showing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders victorious with 26% of the vote, ahead of former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg with 24%. However, it was third place Amy Klobuchar, with 20%, who seemed to draw the greatest media buzz. The...
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Takes on Socialism, Says It Will Lead to an ‘Eroding Society.’ (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Breaking News From Corporate Media: Billionaires Do Not Like Socialism
Big news, everyone! Billionaires don’t like socialism. In response to a rising progressive tide in the United States, a new genre of stories has emerged in corporate media: rich guys warning against taxing them, or really changing anything about the system at all. Just as the press are keen for you...
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Even if one is inclined, against all experience, to take US claims about an official enemy on faith, the language that Soleimani killed "hundreds of Americans" is a deliberately nebulous. (Photo: Screenshot) Views
Friday, January 10, 2020
From Resistance to Assistance: Corporate Media's Pathetic Pushback to Trump's Iran Assassination
After Donald Trump’s election, both the New York Times and Washington Post saw huge jumps in subscribers, all hoping that the outlets would hold the president to account. Both papers tapped into this sentiment: In February 2017, the Post adopted the motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness” on its...
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A sampling of headlines on Corbyn's defeat. Views
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Corporate Media Find All the Wrong Lessons for US Left in Corbyn's Defeat
Conservative leader Boris Johnson swept to power in the U.K.'s December 12 elections, winning 365 of a possible 650 seats. Labour's socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his resignation, after a bitterly disappointing night for his party. Across the spectrum, corporate media all came to the same...
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His policies drew the great ire of the US government, Western corporations and the corporate press, who function as the ideological shock troops against leftist governments in Latin America. (Photo: CBS/Screenshot) Views
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
When the US Supports It, It's Not a Coup
Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media are presenting the weekend’s events in Bolivia. No establishment outlet framed the action as a...
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A Chilean protest movement has exploded and forced change in the country's neoliberal government, but for some reason U.S. media isn't paying attention. Views
Sunday, October 27, 2019
The Revolution Isn't Being Televised
It's all kicking off everywhere in 2019. Haitians are revolting against a corrupt political system and their President Jovenel Moïse, who many see as a kleptocratic US puppet. In Ecuador, huge public manifestations managed to force President Lenín Moreno to backtrack on his IMF-backed neoliberal...
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